Almost every computer user has experienced such a situation: s/he is working on something on the computer and suddenly the computer either stops responding (“freezes”) or shows the “blue screen of death” (“crashes”). There are several indications that let a user know that a computer may be frozen. The most common is the “unresponsive” program. The program will simply not do what you tell it to do. Additionally, the program may appear “stuck” in the task bar at the bottom of the screen (it will appear to be eternally minimized, never being capable of being opened for use by a user). Alternatively, a user may see a message pop up, telling the user that a program has performed an “illegal operation” or “is no longer responding;” these are ways the computer operating system tells the user that the program has frozen. A major indication that a computer may be frozen is that the mouse “freezes” in its place, and cannot be moved about the screen any more. The “blue screen of death” is probably the most obvious indication: a computer will flash to a blue-background with white text, listing a small amount of computer code alongside an error message.
There are many reasons why a computer may freeze or completely crash, among which the system software load process may be a major reason. Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that software is a generic term for organized collections of computer data and instructions. Software is often broken into two major categories: system software that provides the basic non-task-specific functions of the computer, and application software which is used by users to accomplish specific tasks.
The computer system software load process may be critical to understanding and resolving the issue why a computer freezes or crashes. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a method to determine the different system software load process: whether the loaded computer system software was loaded in a computer manufacturer's factory, loaded by a system restoring CD (SRCD), or loaded by downloading an image. By communicating the system software load information back to a central authority when or after a computer crashes or freezes, the computer manufacturer may be able to use such information (e.g., by performing a statistical analysis of the data, and the like) to trace the cause of why the computer crashes or freezes and find a corresponding solution.